================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 77 ISSN 1069-7799 June 25, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (100 lines) - HOUSE URGES USPS GOVERNORS TO REJECT POSTAL RATE INCREASES; DRAFT USPS REGULATIONS AVAILABLE - DRAFT REPORT ON ELECTRONIC RECORDS SUBMITTED - SENATORS ENCOURAGED TO PUT CRS REPORTS ON THEIR WEB SITES _________________________________________________________________ HOUSE URGES USPS GOVERNORS TO REJECT POSTAL RATE INCREASES; DRAFT USPS REGULATIONS AVAILABLE On June 23, by a vote of 393 to 12, the House of Representatives passed H. Res. 452, expressing the sense of the House that the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service should reject the recommended decision issued by the Postal Rate Commission on May 11, "to the extent that it provides for any increase in postal rates." The resolution pointed out that the USPS has realized a cumulative net income of approximately $5.8 billion during the past three and half fiscal years. The nonbinding resolution is not likely to convince the Board of Governors to reject postal rate increases, but the congressional action may provide an impetus to delay the implementation of the new rates (see ALAWON v7, n48, May 13, 1998). An announcement about when new rates will go into effect is expected on June 30 during the next meeting of the Board of Governors. In a related move, the Postal Service has released draft language on the final rules affecting mailing standards that will accompany the new rates when they are implemented. The 191-page draft is available at http://www.usps.gov/clr/ratecase.pdf _________________________________________________________________ DRAFT REPORT ON ELECTRONIC RECORDS SUBMITTED The Electronic Records Work Group established by Archivist of the United States John Carlin has given him a draft report recommending a three-part approach for managing electronic records in federal agencies. A key recommendation is that agencies must schedule their program and unique administrative records in all formats. Presented in mid-June, the report is available at http://www.nara.gov/records/grs20/reprt612.html The Work Group is an interagency group formed by the Archivist in November 1997 to review the 1995 version of General Records Schedule (GRS 20), which was declared null and void by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Archivist has appealed the Judge's decision in Public Citizen v. Carlin. ALA is one of the co-plaintiffs in the case. _________________________________________________________________ SENATORS ENCOURAGED TO PUT CRS REPORTS ON THEIR WEB SITES Sens. John Warner (R-VA) Wendell Ford (D-KY), respectively chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, sent a letter to their colleagues on June 10 advising all Senators of their ability to make Congressional Research Service (CRS) products available to the public via Member and Committee Internet Web sites. They said that it is their intent to evaluate the public interest in this feature and the accompanying impact on CRS, Committees and Member offices before considering additional ways to electronically disseminate CRS products. At the end of March, ALA President Barbara Ford sent the recent ALA Council resolution on CRS publications to key Senators and Representatives and the Library of Congress. The resolution, passed by ALA Council at its Midwinter Meeting in January, urged that the Joint Committee on the Library, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, and the House Oversight Committee take immediate action to assure that CRS reports and products are distributed in a timely manner to the general public through Federal Depository Libraries and on the Internet. (For a copy pf the resolution, see http://www.ala.org/washoff/cd2003.html) _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Anne Heanue All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================